ckuske

Nevermind, already saw a problem with trying to dynamically resize things. I'm leaving it alone for now.

I've updated the HTML one more time for the night. The whitespace pointed out earlier on iPhones should be gone. Basically, the top and bottom of the site/forum should look cleaner. Hoping that's really the case and nothing is broken.

Yep, that's the one. It doesn't render like that one a desktop, but I see that on my phone... I hadn't noticed that before. That whitespace needs to be there (well, for now) to get the top area of the forum to render properly in the iframe. I'll continue to look at it. The Weebly HTML is kinda a mess - that's what happens with these WYSIWYG tools. I just chopped the footer out, that grey bar on the bottom should be gone now. (Gary, this is in the "Edit Theme" area of Weebly) Overall these are changes I'm going to try to make iteratively - I don't wanna screw up the site for people and not realize it. We will probably never get "perfect" here - dealing with these rendering issues is like playing Whack-A-Mole, and since 99% of the HTML is out of our control, any of our fixes can get broken by Weebly or InVision at any time.

I've removed the two search boxes from the Weebly header. If there's page layout issues that anyone notices, please let me know. In my browsers, the two boxes normally get hidden quickly when the page finishes rendering. I had to add some whitespace into the page to get the forum to show up completely like it was before, so I'm not sure if I've helped with Jeff's concern or not.

That parameter is basically there to prevent an infinite loop of redirects (Gary has seen it!) since we need the redirect/embed logic in both Weebly and InVision. The noloop is basically a sentinel variable.

TBH, I am confusing myself on the logic at this point to be able to explain it and I'm not going to touch it for the time being. The code isn't complicated, but I'm fuzzy on the reasons why I did certain things. I made comments, but the comments are only as useful if the comments mean something later... But, this is a semi-intentional "feature" in the redirect code that forces the forum embedding right now. If you access this URL for the site, it will allow the forum to display with no embedding forced: https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/?noloop=1

It is confusing - the InVision that is shutting down is not our InVision. There is another company with a design collaboration product named the same thing, that is what is shutting down. We are safe. 🫣

Yep, I'll take a look at that tonight. Yes, there are settings in InVision for SEO/Page Tracking. It depends if you want to track Weebly page access vs forum page accesses, or would you like do to both?

Thanks, Jim! Here are some final before and after pics. I finished the rear window, and looks like I dug myself out of a hole successfully on this one. I threw the steel wool away lol. I did take things off a bit, but the cerium oxide finds its way into every nook and cranny. So, time to give the truck a bath anyway... It turns out the good ol' Dewalt with a 3" wool polishing disk was way more effective than the DA polisher, which I didn't expect. I used the finest cut foam pad on the polisher though, and didn't apply as much pressure. But, I'm done experimenting glass! All the water spots are gone, the fog from removing the water spots is done, and I'll calling it a day! Before: After:

Thanks, yeah that occurred to me too! Thankfully, my weatherstripping and paint are both slated for replacement sooner than later so I'm not too concerned. I did clean things afterwards and so far it's nothing I dont think a couple Q-tips and some water won't fix. Otherwise, your advice makes total sense! When I use my DA polisher, I'm gonna have to wear some crummy clothes as I've read the cerium oxide gets EVERYWHERE. I was careful with the drill, but I'm gonna have to be careful to not repeat my recent mistake of not checking for results from ALL angles often. Where the polisher is too large to work (the corners and the passenger vent window), I'll have to result to the drill and the kit I bought which supplied a 1" pad for that purpose.

Ok, looks like some progress. I spent about 20 minutes on the passenger door window with the cerium oxide and a kit that included some 3" polishing pads to use with my drill. Definitely better! I also ordered some pads for my DA polisher, since I have 5 windows to go it should make things go a little faster and do better than my poor Dewalt cordless drill that only goes maybe 200 RPM. It seems lots of detailers use rotary tools with cerium oxide if you're *careful*. The dual action of the polisher I'm using is meant to help newbies not burn their paint, so that'll help with the blast radius http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/laughing-25-x-25_orig.gif in case I mess up. Apparently you have to look out for heating up the glass and obviously applying even pressure so you take a uniform amount of material off the surface. I started with light pressure, and it basically did nothing. I applied medium to medium-heavy pressure and while it wore the drill out quickly, it did make a big difference. There is more to do on that window even, but I'm encouraged by the results and I think I didn't do irreversible damage. Before: After:

That's awesome, thanks Gary. I'll let you know if I end up needing it. Hopefully I can get mine fixed up and someone else in need can use it some day. But until then, stand by!

Much appreciated! The cerium oxide will be here in a few hours, and we will see if I can undo my mistake and go from there. I'd like to keep the original glass if possible - as stupid as it sounds, there is an outline on the rear window glass still from a sticker my Dad had on the back window through the early 90's. I'd hate to get rid of those little reminders of him being the original driver of the truck.

Man, you guys know your windows. Thanks for all the background information. I see that there is a clear glass version of the CRL slider available out there. It's not as popular as the grey glass version (on LMC for example) but for the purist the option is out there! They offer a version (DY90035) with no gasket, and the catalog says the OEM gasket will work. Just putting this here for future readers. I'll hopefully post good news tomorrow night. Charging my drill batteries so I use it to polish a test spot on my slider. I'm kind of tempted at this point to just buy the new slider though for $176 (gasket excluded - picture is incorrect)! https://www.gordonglassusa.com/item/DVW950B-1972/CRL-Duo-Vent-Four-Panel-Truck-Slider-with-Clear-Glass-for-1973-1996-Ford-F-Series-DVW950B-1972.html

Thanks for the tip on Simichrome, Jim. I just tried to order some from Amazon and says it can't be shipped to my location (insert California joke here). It looks like the Flitz can be ordered though, that'll go onto the list also.

Ok, I ordered some cerium oxide, I'll give that a shot tomorrow and go from there. I saw some mentions of using a clay bar also, so that will be the next possible solution. The scratches are super fine, so I'm hoping this will work. I guess I just used too much pressure with the steel wool... (duh) but I wasn't getting any results after an hour of trying lighter pressure...

Thanks for that, I'll take a look. I guess if it's screwed up already and I'm looking for replacements, it doesn't hurt to try. My main issue with the aftermarket sliders is they are mainly grey or solar glass. I want the green tint, and after a bit of digging, I ran across this: https://www.dkhardware.com/oem-replacement-duo-vent-four-panel-slider-with-light-green-glass-for-1973-1996-ford-f-series-7130et-product-28289.html The only bummer as you mention is the different gasket. I would like to retain the chrome insert, and that won't be a possibility if I get the aftermarket slider. The other nitpicky thing is I like having the Carlite etching on the glass - I have found replacement door/vent glass, but obviously that will be missing from the replacements and won't match the rest of the car (can you tell this is more of a passion project than a work truck thing?! haha) So I think at the end of the day if the cerium oxide doesn't work out, I'm on the hunt for OE glass. If all else fails, then the aftermarket slider above will work, but I'll be pretty disappointed that I caused this...

Thanks, Gary. I had the same thought about using another abrasive, but I'm a bit gun shy now.... I don't want to make it any worse before I try to make it better. (Maybe I could take it to this local guy and he can polish it up and fix it assuming I don't make it worse first) I can probably find the passenger glass pretty easily in a junkyard around here. There aren't a lot of Bullnoses around anymore, but a decent amount of Bricks. Looking at the MPC, it seems the glass changed after 86? I know the slider is different after a certain point, as the glass guy had a nice slider he was going to give me, but it was for either something newer than an 86 or a 91. (91, I think)

This isn't the first and certainly won't be the last time I've done something dumb while working on this truck. (or in life in general) I've been talking to a local area glass guy to get my rear sliding window repaired - new felt channel, weather stripping, etc. He noticed there were lots of hard water spots on the rear window, and the passenger side vent window and door glass. I told them they have been there since the 90s when sprinklers would hit the truck at night. He suggested using a mild abrasive (Barkeeper's Friend) with #0000 steel wool to remove the water spots as all chemical options I've tried have failed, as well as plenty of elbow grease. To see the spots, you had to be at a 30 degree angle or better. So, I used his technique and went to town using this angle to see if I was making progress. The results seemed look great - still some spots, but a big improvement. But now after cleaning the abrasive residue off etc, when I look at a more head on, I can see I've put a bunch of fine scratches into the glass that look "hazy". Thankfully I didn't do anything to the drivers side or windshield, as there was nothing wrong there. See pictures below. Is there hope to fix this with an orbital polisher etc, or should I start trying to find replacement glass? I'd prefer OE, but I guess I can't be choosey now... I see a NOS slider on eBay for $1400(!), but if anyone has a slider with good glass, even if the rest of the slider isn't in great shape, I'd be interested...

The outer gaskets and molding are easy enough to find, but since my sliding windows are tough to move back and forth, it is the glass run/felt that needs to be replaced (well, along with all the normal gasket rubber etc). The glass guy told me that the felt channel (E3TZ-10422B68-B) has no third party alternative. He says the felt in the channels is 1/4" and the smallest these days is 3/8" that you can buy. I don't know if that's true or not, but he seemed like he was trying to help. Anyway, I should get the parts in the mail in a day or two and we will see. I may just try to rehab the window on my own. If anyone else is looking for sliding window felt, try Green Sales. They have 22 more of the E3TZ-10422B68-B felts. And thanks for the MeterMatch suggestion, that seems like a way to smooth out the peculiarities of the different senders. I may order another brass float for when the NOS unit float gives up the ghost (like the original did when I was a kid)

Some updates: Replaced the turn signal switch connector (thanks Gary!) Took my truck to a glass shop to see what they could do to restore the rubber/glass channels. They said they couldn't help, but the owner was really nice and I got some good advice on various restoration things like how to remove water spots from windows. The water spots have been there since I was 18, and that's been a minute! (Hint, window cleaner and #0000 steel wool, I've tried it and it works great) I dug into the MPC and figured out the part numbers for the lower glass channel and the felt (called "Window Filler" in the MPC. I found the felt and the channel on Green Sales. Ordered up! My friend is printing a new version of my brake pedal cruise adapter (keeps vacuum from being let out of the system until brake is applied), I should be able to hopefully try that out this weekend. I got one of a Bricknose in a local junkyard, and while it's not the same, it is a good starting point. I found a NOS fuel tank sender on eBay and I've installed it. I've tried the Spectra and it works until 1/2 tank so far, then falls like a rock. I've bent the rod and played all the games, and it just doesn't work to my satisfaction. Hopefully the NOS one works better over the next few weeks (that's the expectation). I spent some of my play money on the window parts and the fuel sender, so the new P/S pump will have to wait a month or two. And, I have to buy jack stands and a floor jack. I had borrowed my friend's for way too long and felt guilty about it (he didn't mention it, I did). Time to invest some in my own gear in that area. So, that will be some more money to invest before I can jack the front of the truck up and replace the crummy pump with the new one that is $400...

Sorry, I came back to this thread and I saw Cardone and got triggered before thinking about what I was posting

I do NOT recommend a Cardone pump. I replaced my CII pump (reservoir was leaking) with a Cardone and before that the pump did not make any noise. Now, people can hear me coming down the street with the Cardone unit ("Yep, here comes an old Ford" the smog guy said the other day...) I'm saving my pennies up for the Lee CII/Saginaw replacement unit.

Making memories, this is awesome!

In their personal lives they were more into cars, but there was lots of pressure to keep turning out the surfing songs of course! Brian Wilson helped Jan and Dean out with some songs including “Dead Man’s Curve”